(REUTERS PHOTO) Iraqi soldiers sit on ballot boxes being transported for general counting"Will IRAQ descend into civil war?" Numerous political analysts have warned that a civil war has already took place in Iraq despite of the Parliamentary elections which the Occupation Authority and the puppet Iraqi government claim will bring democracy and restore stability to the war-torn country.
Some have actually suggested that the current U.S.-backed Iraqi "government" is the most powerful faction in the country’s civil war, as it has the tools; both money and troops, as well the U.S. military’s support.
Contrary to what some may think, the Iraqi elections, which started on the 15th of December, are not expected to change the current ethnic tension and political turmoil that have plagued the country ever since the invading troops set foot in there. It’s true that the results are not out yet, “but the likelihood is that they will show that Iraqis continued to vote along sectarian lines, with no real vision toward a united country,” suggests an article published on The Daily Star.
The elections will "temporarily draw attention away from the monumental, irreconcilable rift that has developed between Iraq's Arabs and Kurds,"
With the “Kurds taking steps to consolidate their future independence; how Iraqi Arabs react once the United States stops providing them with security remains to be seen,” the article adds.
Ethnic tensions that had been fueled by the illegal occupation will continue between the country’s main ethnic groups, the Shias, Sunnis and the Kurds, the storm, according to what The Detroit News stated recently, is blamed for low turnout.
Contrary to what’s being said in the media, about IRAQ emerging as a more united and democratic country after the vote, voting patterns in Metro Detroit are likely to reflect the sectarian divisions in their homeland.
Polls in Dearborn and Farmington Hills closed at 9 p.m. Thursday, and election workers attributed that to the need to quickly organize the polling stations following the United Nations’ refusal to participate and the Iraqi government’s initial refusal to monitor out-of-country voting.
Iraqi voters in Metro Detroit are likely to favor the slates of candidates most closely allied with the two religious groups in the area: Christians and Shia Muslims, The Detroit News editorial suggested, same way voters in Iraq support the political organizations that reflect their religious affiliation.
So the ethnic split will affect the voting process and will never be heeled.
"I did not say they should vote for anyone," said Imam Husham Al-Huisany, a prominent local Muslim leader and director of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn. "But I did tell them I voted for slate 555."
"It is the only slate indirectly supported by the grand ayatollah," Al-Huisany said, referring to The United Iraqi Alliance, the most powerful political group in the current Iraqi government, which was designated as slate number 555 on the ballot.
Last January, in the vote for the constitutional assembly, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani endorsed the slate of candidates of the United Iraqi Alliance.
Moreover, several Chaldeans, who also have strong views about candidates who support their interests in Iraq, say that the group was likely to vote for one of the slates that has a significant number of Chaldean candidates.
"People are looking for the betterment for Iraq, first, but they are also looking out for the betterment of their people," said Joseph Kassab, president of the Chaldean National Congress of Michigan. Kassab stated that the organization was busy ferrying Chaldeans from area churches to the polling place in Farmington Hills.
Bishop Ibrahim Ibrahim of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of America, on the other hand, did not publicly endorse a specific slate, however, he made his views known, Kassab said.
"I haven't heard him say who he would vote for," Kassab said. "But I have heard him say it is in the best interest of our people to vote for our people."
According to experts on Middle Eastern communities, “other Americans make the mistake of assuming that political affiliations are based on religion alone,” the article adds.
"It is a more like a heritage or an ethnic group," said Ronald Stockton, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.
Many, even American officials, believe that IRAQ's elections won’t halt the tensions between the country's ethnic factions, and thus the turmoil and violence that gripped various parts of IRAQ.
The split among the country’s ethnic communities will always be there, and will affect the poll results and thus instigate more struggles at the country’s new government which the Occupation Authority claims will be a democratic and united government.
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| in a democratic, civilized society voters vote in candidates representing the region, county, state or area where the voters live. this means that there will be a representative government of all factions. all factions, sunn shia, and kurd should be represented, and it is these indivuduals who should work out solutions for ethnic and ious conflicts. as long as all elected officials respect differnces and compromise, iraq has a secure and optimistic future, and i think they can do that. it is the people that i worry about. now is the time for all iraqis to allow the elected leaders to work out the differences among groups, and not a bunch of gun-toting free spirits. compromise for peace and freedom. let freedom ring | |
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| well if the members of the outgoing government, which represents about eighty percent of the population, are puppets, then i wonder what the remaining twenty percent are. puppies? i guess so. if a dawg barks down the street they turn their noses to the sky and starts to houl. | |
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| at least the freedom fighters are not getting paid to fight like american merceneraries that join the army for the dollars to put them through college. how could you kill innocent people that caused you no harm to pay your tuition. this is disgusting. | |
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| we all expect this situation.this is what the u want to see that iraqis killing iraqis. this is a good excuse for them to stay longer for more oil | |
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| if they want a civil war then let them have it but the us is not going to be there to fight it for them. if all they want is more killing in their country then so be it. i for one don't care, it's their lives so kill each other if thats what you want. and i see the name stealer 2 is at it again. terrence from saudi arabia , are you a man or a , the answer, a cause a man would use his own name on his comments. | |
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| hopefully now the combined iraqi voice will now tell usa and they allies and former allies ie saudi s, taliban, saddam loyalists, bin ladens, zarqawis etc to leave. even their fig leaves will now become even more transparent and thinner. | |
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| this civil war is what the evil bush wants it to happen and done by keeping on spinning lies upon lies like never ending toilet rolls. the war mongers here has special digestive juice for it and crave for the added bu after he clean himself with those tissue.they are at feet low and feel no remorse in making monies by killing and conning iraqis for their chirstmas. | |
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| a civil war is not imminent, it is already under way, in large part because of the american presence. the longer the u.s. stays, the more it fuels sun knee hostility toward she iyte "collaborators". were america not in iraq, sun knee leaders could negotiate and participate without fear that they themselves would be branded traitors and collaborators by their constituent he iraqi government would lose its stigma. iraq's security forces would no longer be working on behalf of foreign in fidels against fellow iraqis, but would be able to function independly and recruit sun knees to a truly national force. the mere announcementof a u.s. withdrawal would allow sun knees to come to the table and participate in defining the new iraq. | |
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| nothings going to change,while occupation forces are on iraqi lands the "united nations mandate iraqi resistance" will carry on to free there country from occupation and the stealing of there natural resources from occupation countries.maketradefair,make poverty history | |
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| its been a civil war as we all know. that was obvious when the pathetic resistance decided to human bomb worshipers and kids that have nothing at all to do with us forces,dah? what good did that do? unless you are a racist, that dont like the shia. thats what it is, is it not? poor loser baathist facist that have controled and squandered the wealth of iraq or now, car bombing shia because they are jealous. but if you were a shia or a kurd, would you let them car bomb themselves back into power? given the fact that not one single nation or army supports the poor losers, how on earth are they ever going to take back power? its impossible. they dont have the support of the iraqis or anykind of functional army thats for sure. its surrender now or the end of a barrel from the iraqi wolf brigade or us commandos. we are still waiting for you clowns to fight. | |
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| the spectre of a civil war has benn overhanging iraq since the insurgency was at its height when the purpose was to provoke civil strife bewtween the shias and su is. at one stage the saudis and neighbouring arob states were similarly concerned and relieved that the shias and sunnis were wise enough not to fall into the trap. but lets face it the iraqis of all factions are tired of unending strifes and even the sunni insurgents are helping preserving the political process. one cannot predict with great precision the prospect of a civil war, but to say in such strong term that it is imminent after the great support shown by iraqis for a constitution of peace is certainly mischievous and derogatory to the iraqis. it is clear that this constitutional political process will lay the groundwork for peace. it is the losers that are calling for civil wars. | |
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| i am really and truly dis. gu. sted by this ar. ticle in this s.hit.y we.b . why don’t you celebrate the participation of over ten million iraqis in the election for the very first time in their history and the history of any arab country ever. sha. me on you. so corrupt and distorted minded. we as kurds have and will keep our hard won freedom and will live with other iraqis for a better future. | |
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| civil war in iraq when usa and uk are there? coincidence? i don't think so. usa and uk will try anything to keep the country down, but if you look at the business reports you see that usa and uk finaces are doing really badly, for example check out the u european rebate issue. but still no iraq oil for the 21st century nna ii-ccrruussaaddeerrss, because unlike saddam, the resistance loves iraq more than ccoowwbbooyyss, yhee h | |
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| yes sherzad,you talk about iraq and the non entity country called "kurdistan" but you write this while living in britain,why are you not there living with your fellow iraqis of iraq and fellow kurds of a non existant country called kurdistan,shallow words indeed sherzad shallow words indeed!.maketradefair,make poverty history | |
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| why must you call it a puppet government? millions of iraqis have voted for their nrepresentitives. do you think it is more legitimate to turn authority over to the sad man holdouts who like to blow up school buses with children on board? try to put things into perspective. thank you. | |
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| you arabs are only good at keeling people. wherever there are problems in the world, it is certain to be an arab behind it. go on and kill yourselves | |
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| this article is funny. first this place claims there is no factional fighting and all the attacks by freedom fighters are directly against the occupiers and their supporters. any civilian were accidently martyr or the usa military was behind it. then this place changes its tone and switches to using the word insurgency and factional fighting. then they say the usa is going to put a puppet dictator in charge and oppress the iraqis. and the usa may do the horrible unthinkable and divide the county into ethnic pieces. when the usa decides to have elections so people can vote on a leader for the entire united country this place writes articles saying the people are not capable of having an elected government that can unite the country. would you guys just make up your minds as to how you feel. | |
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| rich ,shalom ,how is that hot sister of yours doin i hope you gave her the advice i told you o keep her away from those kosher bakes,i don't want her putting weight on,mazel tov my hebrew "friend" and happy hannukah to your sister.maketradefair,make poverty history | |
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| rich very powerfull words from an educated civilized british citizen well you seem to have missed your own history my friend anyways iraq is not a simple matter there are a lot of hands trying to gain control in iraq a sort of cold war the west specially is on the loose because of its paranoya against the iranian threat iran doesnt need to do much since the biggest man in iraq is indeed iranian himself i mean the grand ayatollah sistani so the west needs to get something out of iraq it cannot do that with force and she cannot do it via democracy since iranian interests are historically and ously connected to the majority of iraqis so automatically any election is in iranian favour this is now exactly the whole america has put herslef into she thought invading iraq would disorder iran yet now no one knows what is happening but it is certainly not to the interest of america this is my point of view i am not taking anybodies side its more dangrous than the last cold war. | |
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| neolib, does your last comment do anything to further an intelligent discussion of the topic? when your words are only used to inflame and in , they are not words of a wise person, they are the vomitus of a child. if you can find nothing to say that contributes to an honest discussion, an attempt to make order from chaos, an effort to find common ground among men, then your words are not needed. | |
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| yes, some one in charge here must be losing it. bombings take place in jordan and we see one day zacoward dont exist, then the next he claims to be responsible for some attack on us forces then he exist.we see them state huge voter turn out. but its was supose to be some us puppet govt, which is a lie. then they lie and claim us forces car bomb? dah? why do they ignore these brave iraqis like the ones in the picture? i will give them credit, they came out and voted knowing some pathetic resistance clown my torch itself trying to get at them. another good one? the resistance is now guarding polling s, dah? wow, that was a delerious dream by some one here. all the resistance is doing is hiding and slithering around like somekind of mutated reptile. congrats to all the courageous iraqis. very impressive. you showed the whole world. no denying it thats for sure. | |
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| you cqant call it immenant because it may not happen. the only reason there are bombings and threat of a civil war is because the sunni population was once in control but they arent now | |
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| low ridge his has nothing to do with you,it is between me and rich's sister,he is trying to stop the inevitable from happening.maketradefair,make poverty history | |
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| what americans did to iraqes, let it happen to them. americans sprayed phosphorus on babies and children. let it happen to their babies and children. americans raped iraq children. let american children be raped. americans tortured innocent iraqes. let americans also be tortured. americans targeted and killed innocent iraq civilians. let americans also be targeted, both young and old. americans took away the rights and freedoms of iraqes, let americans also lose their rights and freedoms. americans destroyed iraqe homes. let their homes also be destroyed. americans destroyed iraq cities. let american cities become rubble | |
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| neolib, if i can see and react to somethin it involves me. i imagine that you and i hold some common beliefs and if we were to have intelligent discussion we may be able to see i to i on a number of topics, but when you allow peurile comments to be your contribution, i can't take anything else you may say seriously. | |
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| there will be an escalation in violence, because the sunny will not be properly represented. people seem to forget that the less "productive" areas of iraq will not get much of the oil wealth. it`s written in the constitution. perhaps thew insurgents should destroy the oil pipelines, to insure more equality of wealth in the country | |
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